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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Goin\' Up

Valdosta State\'s Chris Hatcher uses poise and character to reach the top
by: Richard Scott
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It would be so easy to say it’s all the head coach. Take a look at his success, his overall record, his impact on the program and the fact that seven of his assistant coaches have left the program in the past three years and moved on to higher levels of college football and the program hasn’t skipped a beat, and it’s easy to say the head coach must be the reason.

But what about the university? The tradition of the program? The town? The fans? The local fervor for football? The geographic talent base? Is this a program built for success, with multiple reasons to success and few excuses for failure?

Then again, it’s hard to ignore the head coach of a successful program, isn’t it? Especially when he’s a 30-year-old charismatic up-and-comer with a bright future in the business.

“Valdosta’s a great place,” says former Valdosta State and Kentucky coach Hal Mumme, who is now resurrecting the football program at Southeastern Louisiana. “It’s got a lot of advantages to it. There’s a lot of great talent locally. If you do the right things you can really win a lot of games.”

But what about the coach? What about Chris Hatcher?

“When he left Kentucky for Valdosta, I knew he’d do really well,” says Mumme, who coached Hatcher at Valdosta State and then hired him as an assistant coach at Valdosta State and Kentucky. “He understands Valdosta State. He knows what it takes to win there. He’s young, but he’s wise beyond his years. He’s always been that way.”

It was obvious from the moment Mumme first put his offense into Hatcher’s hands back in 1992 that something special was happening. Now, 12 seasons later, there’s something obviously special going on at Valdosta State.

In the three seasons since Hatcher returned to his alma mater, the Blazers are 36-4, 26-1 in the NCAA Division II Gulf South Conference, with 27 consecutive regular-season wins, 23 consecutive conference victories, three trips to the Division II playoffs and a trip to the 2002 Division II national championship game.

To his credit, Hatcher will be the first to insist that’s the way things ought to be at Valdosta State. He takes stock of the university, the athletic department, the local support for football, the local talent base and a tradition of success and figures if he’s not winning, and winning big, something must be wrong.

“I guess we’re mighty lucky,” Hatcher says, trying his best to “aw shucks” his way past any credit or self-promotion.

To an extent, he’s right. He is fortunate. At some jobs, the resources and the expectations simply demand success, and Valdosta State, on the Division II level, is one of those places.

“Valdosta State is a great place,” Hatcher says. “To me, it’s one of the premier Division II universities in the country. It’s a great college town, and a great football town. We’ve got a great high school program right here in town. Valdosta High School has won more games than any high school program in the nation. We’ve got a great campus, great school, great tradition. The people around here expect you to win, and our players expect to win.”

And no one at Valdosta State expects to win more than Hatcher. He’s not about to say it – and what coach worth his chalkboard would – but Hatcher has set the tone for unprecedented success at Valdosta State. For all the talent, resources and support surrounding the program, there’s no doubt that part of the reasons for Valdosta’s success is a wide-open, free-wheeling, high-flying offense run by Hatcher, as well as his ability to hire good coaches, bring in talented players and give the program a sense of direction that has to start with the head coach.

“I’ll tell you what – that’s a great job,” says LSU defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who became an SEC defensive coordinator in 2002, just two years after being Hatcher’s first defensive coordinator at Valdosta State. “It’s great from a community standpoint, to the school systems, it’s a place where your family is going to be happy, and you’ll always have a chance to play good football and win.

“They’ve got a great talent base. Valdosta State is always going to get great players. They’re able to get the lower I-A kids to play Division II football, and some of the better players who struggle academically and can’t get into the D-I schools are able to get a chance there. But Chris also does a great job of managing the team from a head coach’s perspective. He and his staff do a great job of getting all those players to play together. He’s got an outstanding staff and he lets his coaches coach.”

That’s not just talk, either. Whether it’s the meeting room, the practice field, game day or the recruiting trail, Hatcher has quickly gained an understanding of how to build a winning program – including the challenge of getting the best from his coaches and giving them the best possible chance to succeed.

“When we first got there we didn’t have the players we needed on defense and we went out that first year and really signed a lot of good defensive players – probably three-fourths of our recruits were defensive players,” Muschamp says. “Chris understands what it takes to win. He knows you better be able to win with defense, even though he’s an offensive coach. He knows you need more than a good offensive show to win championships.”

A head coach must do a lot more than draw up the right Xs and Os, and Hatcher has learned that lesson well. As old coaches say, “You can’t win by hitting the other team over the head with a chalkboard.” Instead, successful head coaches run successful programs by hiring good coaches and support personnel, establishing solid principles of coaching and organization, setting the tone for the attitude and direction of the program and selling the program to the university administration, the boosters, the alumni and the general public.

Hatcher has attempted to cultivate new ground, plant seeds and harvest the results in all aspects of the VSU program. He’s constantly tapping into his background as a former Valdosta State quarterback to work with local boosters to raise funds and additional support for the program. He’s also worked hard to establish healthy and productive business and family ties with Valdosta High School.

“He pulls all those facets together well because he’s a good guy to get along with, he’s friendly, he’s fair, he’s honest and all the things you want a head coach to be,” says Kevin Shirley, who left Valdosta State in January after one year as the defensive coordinator to become the secondary coach at Division I-A UAB. “He’s not a behind-the-scenes guy. People respect him because they get to know him and he’s up front with them.”

Hatcher’s success is the product of many factors, starting with the influence of his father, Edgar, who coached in Georgia high schools for more than 30 years.

“Growing up in that environment really got me where I’m at,” Hatcher says. “A lot of his philosophies are the way I try to go about teaching and coaching young men everyday.”

Hatcher also learned an abundance of valuable lessons during coaching stints under Mumme and former Central Florida coach Gene McDowell. After setting multiple national, conference and school records during an outstanding playing career that led to All-America honors in 1993 and ‘94 and the Harlon Hill Trophy in 1994 as the nation’s best Division II player, Hatcher knew he wanted to be a coach and began his career as a graduate assistant at Valdosta State.

“You could tell when he was a player that he was going to be a good coach,” Mumme says. “I coached Chris as a sophomore, junior and senior at Valdosta State and we came in and put this offense in – the same one he runs now, that we ran at Kentucky and Mike Leach runs at Texas Tech after he was on our staff – and it took Chris about a half a season to learn it. After that, he took it and made us a great football team.

“There are certain kids you work with you can just tell if they want to go into coaching, they’re going to be real good at it. Chris was always like having a coach on the field.”

As an assistant working primarily with quarterbacks from 1995 to 1999 at Valdosta, UCF and Kentucky, Hatcher worked with some outstanding quarterbacks, including Kentucky’s Tim Couch, UCF’s Duante Culpepper and Valdosta State star Lance Funderburk. By the time Valdosta State called him home to be the program’s head coach in 2000, Hatcher was only 27 years old but definitely moving in the right direction as a coach.

“You always pick up something from every coach,” Hatcher says. “Sometimes you learn what not to do as well as the right things to do. I’ve tried to incorporate everything I’ve learned into my own philosophy and just run with it. And I’m learning every day. This is just my fourth year as a head coach. I don’t have all the answers and I know that. Every day I learn something new that helps me get better as a head coach. If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.”

Hatcher inherited a program that had slipped to 4-7 the previous years and made an immediate impact by going 10-2, winning the program’s second Gulf South championship and leading the Blazers to the national playoffs. He won Schutt Sports’ Division II Coach of the Year award following his first season as a head coach, but he’ll be the first to admit he was fortunate to put together a young, inexperienced group of coaches who brought a lot of enthusiasm and hunger to the program.

As any successful head coach knows, the problem with hiring good coaches is that someone else will want them, too. The old coaching axiom says that if you hire coaches no one else wants, it won’t be long before you won’t want them either. It turns out Hatcher hired the kind of coaches other coaches wanted and he started losing coaches almost as fast as he could hire them.

“It’s been awfully tough,” Hatcher says. “It’s like recruiting all over again. You go through recruiting every year and for me, it’s like I’m having to hire new coaches every year.

“In another way, it’s a great compliment to our program and how far it’s come. We’ve lost seven coaches in the past three years, all to Division I-A schools, where those coaches were able to do better financially and move up the ladder if you will. I think that says a lot about how our kids have played and how far our kids have come.”

Some assistant coaches leave because they can’t bear working for a particular head coach, working in a specific program or living in a certain town, but that was not the case with Valdosta’s coaching changes.

“I got so much out of being there,” Shirley says. “It’s hard to beat the experience of being able to go and play in the national championship game ... but also to grow as a coach, to be a coordinator at the college level, to recruit and coach a position at that level. There were just so many experiences there that made me a better coach and a better person. I got a lot out of just being in Valdosta with the rich tradition of winning, from the high schools on up, but I got so much out of working with Hatch that I’ll always value and appreciate.”

In 2001, the Blazers held the No. 1 spot in the national Division II poll for eight weeks and finished No. 2 in the nation in scoring defense with a defensive staff that included three full-time coaches aged 25 or younger and just four years of combined experience among the three.

“They come here, they get to coach, they get to take on a lot of administrative duties, because coaching at this level requires you do to so many things,” Hatcher says. “I haven’t necessarily tried to find young coaches and say ‘hey, this is where you’re going to get your start,’ but it’s just worked out that way and it’s been a successful formula for me. I feel good about it when they’ve come in, learned and then go on and realized their dreams.

“I’m real proud of those guys. Whether they know it or not, I keep up with how they’re doing and try to stay in contact with them because I appreciate what they’ve done for us to help us win.”

For all the coaches who left, the one with the most offers is the one who chose to stay. That would be Hatcher himself, who has been approached by Division I-AA schools with head coaching vacancies and Division I-A coaches in search of an offensive coordinator. Hatcher has listened, added up all the plusses and minuses and decided to stay at Valdosta State.

Not that he won’t leave someday. Hatcher is quick to insist he’s not looking to leave Valdosta State, a place he calls home in every genuine sense of the word, and he remains an ardent fan and proponent of Division II football. However, the lure of major college football is strong for a kid who grew up dreaming about playing and coaching Southern football, especially the SEC.

“I’ve had some opportunities to move on, and a lot of people might say those are better opportunities than where I’m at,” Hatcher says. “I just don’t think the opportunities have been the right ones for me at this time.

“My goal is to be the winningest coach to ever coach the game of football. That’s my goal and I tell that to the team every year. I tell them ‘you’ve got to have a goal, and if you’re going to set a goal why not set it as high as it can possibly be.’

“But I’ll admit I also want to be a head coach at a major college in the South, especially the SEC. I’ve grown up here. That’s who I am, as far as being from the South. Now, will I ever reach that? Time will tell. If I stay here at Valdosta State the rest of my life, that would be fine, too. I enjoy what I’m doing. But either way, it’s Chris Hatcher’s goal to be the winningest coach to ever coach the game.”

His friends can see it. They know Hatcher loves Valdosta State and wouldn’t leave the university for just any job, especially some Division I-AA job that really isn’t any better than the one he already has, but they also know his drive, his heart, his desire to be the best,

“It’s just a matter of Chris can getting the right opportunity at the right time,” Muschamp says. “It’s also a matter of whether or not he wants to leave Valdosta State. I know that’s a goal of his to be a head coach in the SEC, but it depends on what steps he’s going to have to take to get that accomplished – whether that’s moving up as a head coach or taking a coordinator’s job somewhere. But there’s no question he’s very capable of being a head coach at this level.”

Mumme adds, “When I was at Valdosta, Bobby Wallace was at North Alabama and Rocky Hager was at North Dakota State and the three of us would compare notes all the time. We felt like we had the best small college jobs in America – below I-A.”

At the same time, Mumme says, “I think Chris can do anything he wants to do, and if being a head coach in the SEC is what he wants to do, he’ll get there.”

For now, Hatcher wants to take things one at a time – one season, one game, one day, one play, and not let future hopes and dreams become more important than current challenges.

He’s only 30, and he knows he has a lot to learn, but one of the many valuable lessons he’s already learned is that winners don’t just handle adversity well, they also learn how to handle success. They know what it means to stay hungry and keep climbing up the mountain, always aiming for new goals.

“Things can change in a hurry,” Hatcher says with a laugh. “We very rarely talk about what we’ve done. We always talk about what we’re going to do.

“We’ve been at the top, but we haven’t been all the way to the top. We were close, but our goal here is to go all the way to the top and win the national championship. That’s what we shoot for. If we ever make it, then by gosh we’re going to start over and shoot for it the next year.

“I had an old coach in high school, Mike Garvin, and he always said ‘if you ever get satisfied, it’s time to die.’ I always remember that. You can’t get satisfied. You’ve always got to be trying to get better. I take that to heart and I tell our coaches and players that. If you’re satisfied with what you’ve done, you’ve got nothing else to live for. I think that in itself sums up my desire as a coach. I’m never satisfied.”

NEXT... Hatcher maintains consistency despite revolving door of coaches

As much as Valdosta State’s Chris Hatcher dislikes losing good coaches and trying to replace them, he understands how the business works.

Good coaches want to move up the ladder, take on bigger challenges and make more money. And since Hatcher keeps hiring good coaches and losing them – seven have departed in three years – he’s learned that it’s better to make a phone call, write a letter and wish them well on their way out the door instead of trying to convince them to stay.

“I’ve been all for them,” Hatcher says. “I tell all my coaches that I’ll help them in any way I can. The funny thing is that I’ve never tried to talk a coach into staying. I want them to do what they feel like is best for them.

“The thing I’ve done in hiring is I’ve found people who wanted to be here – whether that’s one year, two years, three years or whatever. The time they’re hear, they enjoy their stay. If you talk to any coach we’ve had, I think they’ll all tell you Valdosta State was a great place for them.”

The tough part of seeing coaches come and go has been maintaining some semblance of continuity. Hatcher credits the players and coaches for handling the situation well, but there’s no doubt the head coach has to work hard to lay a foundation of success that holds up well under the pressure of change.

“If I was to go around sulking all the time about having to hire coaches, I think we might not have won as many games as we have,” Hatcher says. “I use it as a positive. I’m very upbeat and I remind our defensive players that they’re the ones that got that coach his raise, helped that coach get that job on the next level, that they’re the reason that coach was able to move up. With that kind of attitude, making lemonade out of lemons, that’s helped us keep going.”

That attitude has definitely rubbed off on the players, who have embraced change as a challenge.

“The people you feel for the most are the players,” Hatcher says, “especially the defensive players, because all of the coaches who have left have been defensive coaches. I’m a very defensive-friendly coach, even though my background is in offense. I let the defensive coaches do what they want to do. That’s their deal. The defensive coordinator is the head coach of the defense. So when we lose a defensive coach, we do lose some continuity and we have to work hard to keep things together and make it a positive for the kids.

“I tell our players that winners handle adversity well, and each season our defensive players have faced adversity by having to learn a new system. I think they just have the attitude that they can do whatever it takes to learn and make that system work and win.”

In the process, each new defensive coach has added something to the system. Hatcher’s original defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp left for LSU after one year. The next defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart, left for Florida State after the 2001 season. When Kevin Shirley took over as the defensive coordinator for the 2002 season and left for UAB in January, Hatcher elevated linebacker coach Ashley Anders to defensive coordinator. Even with the changes, Hatcher has the same high expectations for his defense in 2003.

“Chris has hired good people who were very similar in scheme,” Shirley says. “Even though the terminology changes, the basic premise of the structure of the defense, of the scheme, has a lot of carryover between all three coordinators. He’s done the same thing now by hiring someone from the staff and the scheme’s going to stay the same, and I think the kids will have a chance to be even better this fall.”

And what if Anders leaves after this season? What if other staff members leave? Hatcher will just start over with a new list of candidates and give them the same recruiting pitch he gave the others.

“I tell every coach the history we’ve had,” Hatcher says. “I tell them, ‘hey, if you come here, heck you’ve got a real chance to move up. Just look at the guys who came here before you.’

“I’m willing to take a chance on ... I wouldn’t say a young coach because I’m a young coach, but an inexperienced coach and give him the opportunity to go out and coach football.”





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